Obama's rocky road on Middle East peace

By Maggie Haberman

07/15/12 11:16 PM EDT

Scott Wilson has a deeply-reported piece on President Obama and his tense relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, tracing back to where things went awry and putting the president's approach to achieving Mideast peace in the context of what he describes as a string of miscalculations, by Obama and his Middle East advisers. The piece begins with a meeting Obama held with Jewish leaders early in his term:

“If you want Israel to take risks, then its leaders must know that the United States is right next to them,” Malcolm Hoenlein, the executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, told the president.

Obama politely but firmly disagreed.

“Look at the past eight years,” he said, referring to the George W. Bush administration’s relationship with Israel. “During those eight years, there was no space between us and Israel, and what did we get from that? When there is no daylight, Israel just sits on the sidelines, and that erodes our credibility with the Arab states.”

Obama’s Muslim middle name, former anti-Zionist pastor in Chicago and past friendships with prominent Palestinians had shadowed his presidential campaign. He wanted to restore the United States’ reputation as a credible mediator. To do so, he believed that he needed to regain Arab trust — and talk tough to Israel, publicly and privately.

This was the change that Obama had promised — a new approach to old problems. But the stunned silence of Jewish leaders around the table that day suggested the political peril he would face along the way.

“We believed from that point that we were in for problems,” said Abraham Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League, who attended the meeting. “And we were right.”

The way Obama managed the Israeli-Palestinian issue exhibited many of the hallmarks that have defined his first term. It began with a bid for historic change. But it foundered ultimately on his political and tactical misjudgments, on a lack of trusted relationships and on an outdated view of a conflict that many of his closest advisers imparted to him. And those advisers — veterans of the Middle East peace issue — clashed among themselves over tactics and turf.

Obama has not visited Israel while in office, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in the region now - two weeks ahead of a visit by Republican Mitt Romney, who is going to have a holiday break-fast at Netanyahu's home. The not-too-subtle contrast of relationships is part of a trip on which Romney, after weeks of being battered over his business background, is hoping to look presidential and remind evangelical voters in the party's base, who heard lots about Israel during the GOP primaries, of the historic relationship between the Jewish state and the U.S.

The Netanyahu side of the equation is also explored at length - including his history of scratchiness with some officials from the Clinton White House who are now part of Obama's circle, and his own ability to turn tension with the U.S. into an advantage at home in a changed Israeli political landscape.

The White House has made increased efforts toward Jewish outreach at home, and has rebutted GOP criticism on defense spending by pointing to historic levels of assistance that some Israeli officials have approved of. Still, that does little to change the fact of tension between the administrations, which has lived on into an election year.